WE REMEMBER CLASSIC PERFORMERS

Today would have been the birthday of several classic stars who have passed from our world. One was the great Jackie Gleason who was born in 1916. Another would have been the great Tony Randall. Tony is perhaps best known for his work on television. His breakthrough role was as history teacher Harvey Weskit in Mr. Peepers (1952–1955). Does anybody remember Mr. Peepers and its star Wally Cox. After a long hiatus from the medium, he returned in 1970 as fussbudget Felix Unger in The Odd Couple, opposite Jack Klugman, a role he would keep for five years. The names of Unger's children on The Odd Couple were Edna and Leonard, named after Randall's sister and Randall himself. In 1974, Randall and Jack Klugman appeared in television spots endorsing a Yahtzee spinoff, Challenge Yahtzee. Although not identified as Felix and Oscar the TV spots were filmed on the same set as The Odd Couple. Subsequently, he starred in The Tony Randall Show, in which he played a Philadelphia judge, and Love, Sidney. In the TV movie that served as the latter show's pilot, Sidney Shorr was clearly written as a gay man, but his character's sexuality was made ambiguous when the series premiered. Disappointed by this turn of events and the series' lack of acceptance, Randall stayed away from television series. Years later he was the host during the breaks for the October 30 - November 2, 1987 free preview of HBO's short lived premium channel Festival. In September 1993, Randall and Jack Klugman reunited once again in the CBS-TV Movie The Odd Couple: Together Again reprising their roles as Felix Unger and Oscar Madison. The story began when, after Felix ruins plans for his daughter Edna's wedding, his wife Gloria throws him out the house for 11 days which left him no choice but to move back in with Oscar and to help him recover, getting him back in shape after throat cancer surgery left his voice very raspy. It would also have been the birthday of "good old Fred Mertz' aka William Frawley who was born in 1887. This amazing veteran character actor, best known for his portrayal of Lucille Ball's gruff landlord ‘Fred Mertz' on the groundbreaking 1950's television sitcom "I Love Lucy." By the time Frawley came to "I Love Lucy" he was a veteran of vaudeville, Broadway and over 100 Hollywood films. He was born William Clement Frawley on February 26, 1887 in Burlington, Iowa. In his youth he sang in the St. Paul's Catholic Church choir, played at the Burlington Opera House, and also appeared in amateur shows at the Garrick Theater. His first "real" job was as a stenographer for the Union Pacific Railroad. But his true love was show business, which he pursued in a vaudeville act with his brother Paul, and later joined pianist Franz Rath in an act they took to San Francisco, "A Man, a Piano, and a Nut." After four years, in 1914 he formed a light comedy act with his new wife Edna Louise Broedt, "Frawley and Louise," touring the Orpheum and Keith vaudeville circuits until they divorced in 1927. Then he moved to Broadway and appeared in such shows as "Here's Howe!" "Bye, Bye Bonnie," "The Gingham Girl," "Sons o' Guns," and "She's My Baby" (with Bea Lillie, Clifton Webb, and Irene Dunne). His first dramatic role was that of press agent ‘Ward O'Malley' in a 1932 production of "Twentieth Century" at the Broadhurst Theater. Then in 1932, it was off to Hollywood for a seven-year contract with Paramount. When Frawley approached Lucille Ball about a part in "I Love Lucy" in 1951, she was surprised to hear from a man she knew only barely from the forties. Lucy responded, "Bill Frawley, how are you?" and promised to discuss the matter with Desi Arnaz. Arnaz agreed that Frawley would be wonderful for the ‘Fred Mertz' role, but shared the network's concern over his reputation for instability and drinking problems. Arnaz immediately leveled with Frawley about CBS's reservations. He denied it, but Desi warned him that if he was late to work, or unable to perform except because of legitimate illness more than once, he'd be written out of the show. So began the saga that continued until 1957 when "Lucy" went off of prime time after 179 episodes. In 1960, Frawley accepted an offer to do a show with ABC, "My Three Sons," portraying ‘Michael Francis "Bub" O'Casey,' a character not unlike ‘Fred Mertz.' He continued with "My Three Sons" for five years, until failing health forced him to retire. On the evening of March 3, 1966 while strolling down Hollywood Blvd. after seeing a movie, Frawley suffered a heart attack and collapsed. He was rushed to nearby Hollywood Receiving Hospital where he was pronounced dead, a week after his seventy-ninth birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAROLD ARLEN

Today would have been the 105th birthday of one of the greatest composers of all time: the one and only Harold Arlen. What an amazing life he had. After his dear wife passed away of a brain tumor in the 1970's, he wrote only one other song in fifteen years: the title tune of the short lived TV series "Paper Moon". In 1929, Harold Arlen composed his first well-known famous hit song: "Get Happy" (with lyrics by Ted Koehler). Throughout the early and mid-1930s, Arlen and Koehler wrote shows for the Cotton Club, a popular Harlem night club, as well as for Broadway musicals and Hollywood films. Arlen and Koehler's partnership resulted in a number of hit songs, including the familiar standards "Let's Fall in Love" and "Stormy Weather." Arlen continued to perform as a pianist and vocalist with some success, most notably on records with Leo Reisman's society dance orchestra. Harold Arlen's compositions have always been popular with jazz musicians because of his facility at incorporating a blues feeling into the idiom of the conventional American popular song. In the mid-1930s, Arlen married, and spent increasing time in California, writing for movie musicals. It was at this time that he began working with lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg. In 1938, the team was hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayerto compose songs for The Wizard of Oz. The most famous of these is the song "Over the Rainbow" for which they won the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song. They also wrote "Down with Love", a song later featured in the 2003 movie Down with Love.Arlen was a longtime friend and former roommate of actor Ray Bolger who would star in The Wizard of Oz, the film for which "Over the Rainbow" was written.In the 1940s, he teamed up with lyricist Johnny Mercer, and continued to write hit songs like "Blues in the Night", "That Old Black Magic," "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive," "Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home" and "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" Harold Arlen composed two defining tunes which bookend Judy Garland's musical persona: as a yearning, innocent girl in "Over the Rainbow" and a world-weary, "chic chanteuse" with "The Man that Got Away". Today is also the birthday of Galileo and Susan B. Anthony as well as the official "President's Day" with all of the banks and schools and post offices closed. It's a beautiful sunny day and I am going to a Santa Monica dealership to apply for a job. Wish me luck.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN SHARES HIS BIRTHDAY

Today of course would have been Abraham Lincoln's 201st birthday. The Disneyland resorts in both Anahiem and Orlando, Florida of course have celebrated Mr. Lincoln well with their audio animatronics show on the amazing sixteenth president of the United States. I was amazed to find out how many statues of Lincoln there are in his home state of Illinois. There are statues of Lincoln in every position a public figure could be engaged in. But today is also a historical day. It was on this day in 1973 that the first prisoner of wars from Vietnam were exchanged. And this birthday date is also shared by Charles Darwin, and on the still living side are Franco Zeferelli, the director who is eighty-seven and Joe Gatagiola, the sportscaster. He is eighty-four. Arsenio Hall is fifty-five and Josh Brolin is forty-two. In history it was also the birthday of General Omar Bradley and Alice Roosevelt Longworth who was the politically influential daughter of Teddy Roosevelt. I wonder what dear Mr. Lincoln would say about our present day America. Of course, his prediction that no military giant would strike America was proved untrue on Sept 11, 2001, but at least it was an attack by stealth (and a cowardly stealth at that) and not by actual military attack. Today I go out looking for new work and I will follow a lead from mid-week. I pray that I will be successful. We forged a new friendship with the York Theatre last week and that was a real blessing. Thank you, Jim. Schools are out today and the sun is shining, so lets hope it will be a great day! The Disneyland cast members will be treated today to a preview of the re-launch of Captain EO at Disneyland featuring the late great Michael Jackson. It is still a few weeks away before it will open to the public, however. I remember when this attraction opened back in the 1980's that there was an all night party at Disneyland that I attended. That was back in 1985-- twenty-five years ago! I still have the pictures I took back then.

WE LOST JIMMY DURANTE 30 YEARS AGO TODAY

Today would have been Jimmy Durante's birthday. We lost him thirty years ago this year on January 29th. What an amazing performer with an incredibly generous heart. Jimmy's love for children continued through the Fraternal Order of Eagles children, who among many causes raise money for handicapped and abused kids of all ages. At Jimmy's first appearance at the Eagles International Convention in 1961, judge Bob Hansen inquired about his fee for performing. Jimmy replied, "Do not even mention money, judge or I'll have to mention a figure that'll make ya sorry ya brought it up" "What can we do then?" asked Hansen. "Help da kids," was Durante's reply. Jimmy performed for many years at Eagles conventions free of charge, not even accepting travel money. The Fraternal Order of Eagles in his honor changed the name of their Children's Fund to the Jimmy Durante Children's Fund, children and in his memory have raised over 20 million dollars to help. A reporter once remarked of Durante after an interview: "You could warm your hands on this one." Jimmy's later years were his best. He appeared in the classic comedy "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (1963) (in which, early in the film, his Smiler Grogan character tells a concerned crowd of $350,000 "buried under a big W" and then dies, literally "kicking the bucket") Jimmy made many classic television appearances through the early 1970s. He narrated the Rankin-Bass animated Christmas special Frosty the Snowman (1969), re-run for many years since. The television work also included a series of commercial spots for Kellogg's Corn Flakes cereals in the mid 1960s, which introduced Durante's gravelly growl and narrow-eyed, large-nosed countenance to millions of children. "Dis is Jimmy Durante, in puy-son!" was his introduction to some of the Kellogg's spots. One of his last appearances was in a memorable television commercial for the 1973 Volkswagen Beetle, where he proclaimed that the new, roomier Beetle had "plenty of breathin' room....for da old schnozzola!"
In 1963, Durante recorded an album of pop standards, September Song. The album became a best-seller and provided Durante's re-introduction, to yet another generation, almost three decades later. His gravelly interpretation of "As Time Goes By" accompanied the opening credits of the romantic comedy hit, Sleepless in Seattle, while his version of "Make Someone Happy" launched the film's closing credits. The former number appeared on the film's best-selling soundtrack.
He wrote a foreword for a humorous book titled Cockeyed Americana, compiled by Dick Hyman. In the first paragraph of the "Foreword!," as Durante called it, he met Hyman and discussed the book and the contribution Hyman wanted Durante to make to it. Durante wrote, "Before I can say gaziggadeegasackeegazobbath, we're at his luxurious office." After reading the material Hyman had compiled for the book, Durante commented on it, "COLOSSAL, GIGANTIC, MAGNANIMOUS, and last but not first, AURORA BOREALIS. [Capitalization Durante's.] Four little words that make a sentence--and a sentence that will eventually get me six months."Aside from "Dat's my boy dat said dat!" , "Dat's moral turpentine!" and "It's a catastastroke!" (for "catastrophe,") Durante sent such catch phrases as "Everybody wants ta get inta the act!", "Umbriago!" and "Ha-cha-cha-chaaaaaaa!" into the vernacular. Jimmy suffered a stroke in 1972, and used a wheelchair during the last years of his life. He died of pneumonia in Santa Monica, California, on January 29, 1980, aged 86, and was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City.

It is also actor Robert Wagner's 80th birthday. Robert Wagner was actually discovered by a talent agent as Lana Turner was. It was a protegee of classic actor Clifton Webb. His most famous marriage was to actress Natalie Wood who drowned while aboard his yacht at Catalina Island.

A MIGHTY RIVER -- UNDER CONSTRUCTION

For all people who think that Disneyland would be uncrowded on Super Bowl Sunday-- forget it. Both Disneyland and California Adventure Parks were jammed all day and the weather in the evening was down right cold. The park has drained the Frontierland River and is refurbishing for the first time in seven long years. It's quite amusing to see bulldozers and trucks along the riverbed. Here reality and fantasy cross over. I am amazed at the rocket high prices for food--even with cast member discount of 20% a hot hot dog would cost $5.25 and a turkey leg $6.40. Wow! But I had a good time. I've included photos of the Frontierland River construction and make over here. Yesterday February 7th was also the 70th birthday of Walt Disney's classic film and character Pinocchio. If you haven't seen this amazing animated classic in a while, you really need to. You will cry as I always do. Pinocchio is actually my second favorite Walt Disney film of all time and it's main song "When You Wish Upon A Star" is my all time favorite song. Jiminy Cricket was always voiced by veteran film star Cliff Edwards. Cliff was known also as "Ukulele Ike" and he was he who introduced the song "That's Entertainment". Cliff was a favorite of Walt and when he died penniless, it was Walt Disney who paid for his funeral and burial expenses. It also would have been the 85th birthday of classic comedy actor Jack Lemmon-- dear old Ensign Pulver and of course Hollywood's Felix in "The Odd Couple". We lost a great talent with Jack's passing. I always enjoyed watching him perform. John Nugent and i continue writing for our Vermont deadlines and now we have finally installed two gigs of ram into the computer that we badly needed. Now we can load the entire Garritan sound catalog of instrumentation into the computer without it crashing somewhere around the percussion.

CHARLES DICKENS ONE HUNDRED NINETY-EIGHTH BIRTHDAY

Today would have been the 198th birthday of one of the most prolific writers in all of English literature. Who can forget Oliver, Ebenezer Scrooge or David Copperfield. He was no friend of dear old Virginia Woolf, a fellow writer from his era who thought all of his many characters were "unabashed sentimental balderdash." and his plots purely impossible. Oh who cares about Virginia Woolf?-- or even who the hell is afraid of her! Not me! There is an incident in Dickens' life that very few people know about. It was an event that pretty much cut the famous author's writing proficiency in half , and he died five years to the day of the event. That event was a train crash. An illustration of this crash scene is rendered in the drawing of the aftermath of this event on this page. It was quite a horrific event. This train crash occurred on June 8th, 1865 while returning from Paris with a woman named Ellen Ternan to whom he was deeply devoted (even though he was married at the same time.) No one knew of the extent of his devotion to her. It should be known that divorce with an impending affair at the same time during this time period in England would have ended Dickens Career. Dickens was involved in the Staplehurst rail crash in which the first seven carriages of the train plunged off a cast iron bridge that was being repaired. The only first-class carriage to remain on the track was the one in which Dickens was travelling. Dickens spent some time trying to help the wounded and the dying before rescuers arrived. Before leaving, he remembered the unfinished manuscript for Our Mutual Friend, and he returned to his carriage to retrieve it. Typically, Dickens later used this experience as material for his short ghost story The Signal-Man in which the central character has a premonition of his own death in a rail crash. He based the story around several previous rail accidents, such as the Clayton Tunnel rail crash of 1861. Dickens managed to avoid an appearance at the inquest into the crash, as it would have become known that he was travelling that day with Ternan and her mother, which could have caused a scandal. Although physically unharmed, Dickens never really recovered from the trauma of the Staplehurst crash, and his normally prolific writing shrank to completing Our Mutual Friend and starting the unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood after a long interval. Much of his time was taken up with public readings from his best-loved novels. Dickens was fascinated by the theatre as an escape from the world, and theatres and theatrical people appear in Nicholas Nickleby. The travelling shows were extremely popular. In 1866, a series of public readings were undertaken in England and Scotland. The following year saw more readings in England and Ireland. I had never heard this story before. Well, it's a beautiful sunny day today after a lot of rain. I am going to church. Financial worries again.

SUNRISE SUNSET --

Goodbye Ford!

















Well believe it or not I was laid off from my New Job at Sunrise Ford in North Hollywood. They just eliminated my position without ever giving me a chance. Less then a month. Oh they apologized from the sky to the ground below and said it was nothing personal and that I had done nothing wrong! They really liked me, and a few were even been let go with me to supposidly 'balance the budget". If you are a big car dealership with two locations and you balance your entire fiscal budget and become solvent by simply saving the monthly salaries of five people making $8.00 an hour after a pretty damn good sales month in January 2010 (because after all any one who sells the car will get the commission-- even a trained monkey) you are in deep financial doo-doo. And what hurts even more is that two people were kept who were hired after me and were not let go as I was. And one was kept who had been hired five days after I had. And get this-- one guy they kept hadn't even shown up on the first day! But I am 62 and this may be age discrimination. I was totally Ford certified and licensed and now as I go around looking for work at other Ford dealerships, I find that Sunrise Ford in North Hollywood has a pretty bad reputation. Of course, like everybody in the car business, they try to get you on to the lot where there is a 65% chance that you will buy a car. If they get you into a show room then the chances increase to 85%. I was to be in charge of Special financing for credit challenged customers, but I was told so many times "don't waste your time with this one or that one". And yet one sales counselor was telling people over the phone that she had a new bank that just loved to finance potential customers that just had their bankruptcy discharged. Now there isn't a worse credit risk from of these type of customers and so the two statements completely clashed with one another. This was just really heartbreaking because i was really getting people to come in. I had purchased four cars at this dealership over the years, but you can bet that I will not be foolish to do so again. So beware. If what they say sounds too good to be true-- it is-- in the worst way. They sent me my last check today and didn't even return my sales license-- what the hell goes with that! There are good people here, but something is definitely wrong!

Today is the last day of January and the birthday of several famous people now passed away, save one. The one is Carol Channing who turns eighty-nine today. What an amazing performer! It also would have been the birthday of Eddie Cantor. For those of us old enough to remember, Eddie was that wide-eyed, vaudevillian performer whose career transcended into radio, television and movies. He made songs like "Toot Toot Tootsie" "Making Whoopie" and "Ida ("sweet as Apple Cider) absolute hits! His dear wife's name was Ida and he had five daughters, the heartbreak from the death of one of them (Marjorie) at the age of forty-four was the cause of the early demise of them both. But here are two Eddie Cantor stories I bet no one has heard of, One involves downright prejudice refused and the other is censorship battled but ultimately lost.In the 1950s, Eddie Cantor was one of the alternating hosts of the television show The Colgate Comedy Hour, in which he would introduce variety acts and play comic characters like "Maxie the Taxi." However, the show landed Cantor in an unlikely controversy when a young Sammy Davis, Jr. appeared as a guest performer. Cantor embraced Davis and mopped Davis's brow with his handkerchief after his performance. Worried sponsors led NBC to threaten the cancellation of the show; Cantor's response was to book Davis for two more weeks. On May 25, 1944, pioneer television station WPTZ (now KYW-TV) in Philadelphia presented a special telecast featuring Eddie Cantor, which was also fed to the NBC television station in New York City, WNBT (now WNBC). Cantor, one of the first major stars to agree to appear on television, was to sing "We're Havin' A Baby, My Baby And Me". Arriving shortly before airtime at the Philadelphia studios, Cantor was reportedly told to cut the song because the NBC New York censors considered some of the lyrics too risqué. Cantor refused, claiming no time to prepare an alternative number. NBC relented, but the sound was cut and the picture blurred on certain lines in the song. This is considered the first instance of television censorship. Today also would have been the birthday of Mario Lanza. There is no sadder story than of this dear talented man. Mere months after succumbing to a fatal heart attack at the tender age of thirty-nine, in October of 1959 in Rome, his wife moved back to Hollywood and died herself just five months later of a pulmonary embolism. All of Mario Lanza's children died before the age of fifty-eight. His eldest died of a heart attack at age thirty-eight, his daughter was killed in a car crash and his oldest son died of a heart attack at fifty-seven. Did anyone notice the full moon on Friday night the 29th of this month? It was the brightest full moon of the year (30% brighter) , a blue moon-- the second in a month and the widest moon (by fifteen percent. that we will see all year. It was also called a "wolf" moon" Well, I passed my Ford Motor Company certification tests. There are fourteen different vehicles that Ford makes. So now, I am an official car salesman! Go figure! At least here at Sunrise Ford i have a decent chance of making a decent living! If you had told me just last December that my new job would be a car salesman, I would have looked at you as if you were certified crazy! God draws straight with crooked lines-- again! Tomorrow, February first is my first official day as one!

THE CERTIFICATION PROCESS

It's been a very strange and very difficult two months for me. I worked two jobs just to catch up at two places at opposite ends of each other's geography and there were times that I thought there was no way that I was going to make it. I drove on bad tires and had a check engine light glowing. I made rent by the skin of my teeth--two months in a row! But God has me in his hand s and He just demonstrated it to me again last night and this morning when a financial problem resolved itself and while I am not out of the woods, at least the trees aren't crashing in on me. Sometimes I get so frightened that like Saint Peter, I lose my faith. I had a great roommate once when I lived in Hacienda Heights for about six and a half years. This was where I met my amazing friend Tim Doran. I simply would not be a songwriter without this amazing and wonderful composer.What a blessing and a miracle he has been for all of these many years! But it was here also where I met Jaimie. We roomed together in a big five bedroom house! I really loved this guy a lot-- he was so helpful to me over the years! I haven't seen in almost eleven years. What challenges that poor man endured. He was once robbed in his church's parking lot-- on his way to the service. That didn't stop him. He worked harder than any individual I have ever met. Challenging debts? This poor man who was a painter before he found his great job with the railroad had to hide and park his car around the corner from where we lived to avoid having his car repossessed. What a trooper! I panic far too often and I shouldn't. I need to realize that my Sweet Lord, Jesus and our heavenly father always have me in their hands. Like Saint Peter crossing the turbulent sea, I need to focus on the Lord and don't be distracted by troubles. Every time I panicked, dear Jaimie used to say to me "You're looking at the waves again!" How many of us do? I need to get my faith polished and realize that the Good Lord is always going to be there for me, if I ask Him to be. I continue the certification process on my way to becoming a car salesman --this time only six miles from my apartment. It is really tough learning about all of these Ford cars, but then, I''ve been driving Fords almost all of my life-- well at least since 1980. And that's thirty years. I am so happy I did not land at a Toyota dealership. This is not the time to be one of those. God is the center of my life and I simply need to trust Him more and more!

A GREAT SONGWRITER REMEMBERED

Jimmy Van Heusen was an amazing songwriter who wrote some of the best known tunes in songwriting history. Everyone knows many of his standards especially the Bing Crosby hit "Swinging On A Star" Collaborating with lyricist Eddie DeLange, on songs such as "Heaven Can Wait", "So Help Me", and "Darn That Dream", his work became more prolific, writing over 60 songs in 1940 alone. It was in 1940 that he teamed up with the lyricist Johnny Burke. Burke and Van Heusen moved to Hollywood writing for stage musicals and films throughout the '40s and early '50s, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song for the aforementioned huge hit "Swinging on a Star" (1944). Their songs were also featured in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949). He was also also a pilot of some accomplishment; he worked, using his birth name, as a part-time test pilot for Lockheed Corporation in World War II. Jimmy then teamed up with lyricist Sammy Cahn. Their three Academy Awards for Best Song were won for "All the Way" (1957) from The Joker Is Wild, "High Hopes" (1959) from A Hole in the Head, and "Call Me Irresponsible" (1963) from Papa's Delicate Condition. Their songs were also featured in Rear Window (1954) and Ocean's Eleven (1960). Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen also wrote "Love and Marriage" (1955), -- yes the song that made their widows rich when "Married With Children a good fifty percent of the song as its opening theme. There was also the song"To Love and Be Loved", "Come Fly with Me", "Only the Lonely", and "Come Dance with Me" with many of their compositions being the title songs for Frank Sinatra's albums of the late 50's. Jimmy Van Heusen wrote the music for two Broadway musicals: Skyscraper (1965) and Walking Happy (1966). These shows were not successful and the songwriter did not try again. He became an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971. Jimmy composed over 800 plus songs of which 50 songs became standards. His songs are featured in over one hundred eighty films. Jimmy retired in the late 1970s, and died in Rancho Mirage, California in 1990, at the age of 77. He was close friends throughout life with Frank Sinatra. So close that he is buried in the Sinatra family burial plot in Desert Memorial Park. His amazing grave marker reads Swinging On A Star. Well another day as a car salesman and trying to make ends meet. Dear God, watch over me!

FIVE HUNDRED POSTS

This is my 500th posting to my blog. This all started back in June of 2006. I've received a number of nice comments and compliments. What I don't appreciate is people with business agendas who post an anonymous note that promotes their own own online business. It's been fun writing these articles and it gives a bit of background of my own life and a bit on personalities and history.For example dear old Henry VIII secretly married Anne Boleyn and In 1915, on this date Alexander Graham Bell inaugurated cross country telephone service. Imagine how much technology for telephones has grown in only ninety-five years. Today, Dean Jones turns seventy-nine years young. Dear Dean (whom I met once at Hooper's Camera and had a very pleasant conversation) starred in the NBC television sitcom Ensign O'Toole from 1962-63, produced by Four Star Television, portraying an easy-going naval officer aboard a destroyer. I loved this show. Dean was perfect for it! His co-stars included Jack Mullaney, Jack Albertson, Jay C. Flippen, Harvey Lembeck, and oh yes dear Beau Bridges. Previously, he had appeared in a number of films. Jones played disc jockey Teddy Talbot in the 1957 Elvis Presley smash hit, Jailhouse Rock. He portrayed soldiers in 1957's Imitation General with Glenn Ford and 1959's Never So Few with Frank Sinatra. He became best known for a string of Walt Disney films he made in the 1960s and 1970s, starting with That Darn Cat! (actress Hayley Mills' last film at Disney). Jones' performance was so well-received that Disney continued to utilize him for such future movies as The Ugly Dachshund, Blackbeard's Ghost and Snowball Express. Jones' signature Disney role would be that of race car driver "Jim Douglas" in the highly successful Love Bug series. Jones appeared in two feature films (The Love Bug and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo) and in a short-lived television series produced in 1982 and a made-for-TV movie in 1997. In 1991, Jones co-starred with Gregory Peck and Danny DeVito as the president of Peck's wire-and-cable company, fighting a hostile takeover from DeVito, in the film Other People's Money. He finally got to do a villain's role appearing as the evil veterinarian, "Herman Varnick," in the family film Beethoven in 1992. Later, he did the voice of "George Newton" in TV series version of Beethoven. Dean was one of the last actors to see Walt Disney alive in 1966. He was filming "Blackbeard's Ghost" when Walt (looking so pale and tired) walked onto the set at his Burbank studios. Interesting note: Walt had wanted to utilize Blackbeard's film star Peter Ustinov to star as Nikita Khruschev in a comedy called "Khruschev in Disneyland". Now that would have been funny. John and I are planning a new recording session on February 7th and hope to record a few more songs for the web site.

A BIG DAY IN HISTORY

This was a big day in History. For on this date, the Supreme Court handed down its amazingly controversial Roe vs Wade decision which declared abortion was legal for the first three months. How much controversy did this one decision create? Probably the most of just about them all including the Dred Scott Decision the century before. And on this date, Lyndon Johnson, the 36th president of our country died of a massive heart attack. Can you imagine if he had decided to run for office in 1968? Had Johnson been nominated (and historians are dead sure he would have been) won that election I think that heart attack would have come a lot sooner and Hubert Humphrey president. That would have been interesting. On this day in 1944, Allied forces began landing at Anzio, Italy during World War II in our first big entry into that troubled country. Also on this date, in 1995, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy , the mother President John F. Kennedy died in Hyannis Port at the ripe old age of one hundred and four. Madeline Albright became the first female Secretary of State in 1997. In the entertainment world, in 2008, this was the day that Hollywood lost gifted actor Heath Ledger who died at twenty-eight from an accidental drug overdose. How very sad! And today in 1968 was the premiere of Rowan and Martin's TV classic "Laugh-In". Subsequently, I got to meet Arte Johnson while I was working at Hooper Camera in Sherman Oaks and he became a great friend. His autographed pictures grace the walls of my living room. Today would have been the birthday of film making giant D.W. Griffith. If you have not seen "Birth of a Nation" and you love great movie history, I strongly urge you to find a copy and watch it. My nephew continues to mend from his broken leg ever. He never did so as a child. Now he's in his mid-30's. Well another day at Sunrise Ford and I need to sign off here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PLACIDO DOMINGO

Today is the birthday of legendary singer and conductor Placido Domingo. I was introduced to him years ago by a guy named Steve Hunt whom I haven't seen in almost fourteen years. Steve was my landlord in a house I rented a room from. It was through Steve Hunt that I met the greatest gift of all -my dear friend Tim Doran. Steve Hunt was a really strange guy and was always trying to re-invent himself. I only hope that he is okay and is able to survive as a singing teacher. After a few days of working at Sunrise Ford, I met the son of Soupy Sales -- Tony. He looks just like his dad and is a very sweet man. His father Soupy Sales was born Milton Supman, in Franklinton in Franklin County, North Carolina to Irving and Sadie Supman. His father, a dry goods merchant, had emigrated to America from Hungary in 1894. Sales had two siblings, Leonard Supman (deceased) and Jack Supman (born 1921). His was the only Jewish family in the town; Sales joked the local Ku Klux Klan bought the sheets used for their costumes from his father. Doupy Sales got his nickname from his family. His older brothers had been nicknamed "Hambone" and "Chicken Bone". Milton was dubbed "Soup Bone," which was later shortened to "Soupy". When he became a disc jockey, he began using the stage name Soupy Hines. After he became established, it was decided that "Hines" was too close to the Heinz soup company, so he chose the Sales, in part after comedian Chic Sale. Sales graduated from Huntington High School in Huntington, West Virginia in 1944. He then enlisted in the United States Navy and served on the USS Randall (APA-224) in the South Pacific during the latter part of World War II. He sometimes entertained his shipmates by telling jokes and playing crazy characters over the ship's public address system. One of the characters he created was "White Fang," a large dog that played outrageous practical jokes on the seamen. The sounds for "White Fang" came from a recording of "The Hound of the Baskervilles". He took the record with him when he left the Navy Dear Soupy then enrolled in Marshall College, where he earned a Master's Degree in Journalism. While attending Marshall, he performed in nightclubs as a comedian, singer, and dancer. After graduating, he began working as a scriptwriter and disc jockey at radio station WHTN in Huntington. He moved to Cincinnati in 1949, where he worked as a morning radio DJ and performed in nightclubs. He began his television career on WKRC-TV with Soupy's Soda Shop, TV's first teen dance program, and Club Nothing!, a late-night comedy/variety program. When WKRC canceled his TV shows, Sales moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he hosted another radio and TV series and continued his nightclub act. It was in a skit on his late night comedy/variety TV series Soupy's On! that he got his first pie in the face. Sales claimed he left the Cleveland station "for health reasons: they got sick of me."He moved to Detroit in 1953 and worked for WXYZ-TV (Channel 7), ABC's O&O station. Lunch with Soupy Sales My dear friend Soupy is best known for his daily children's television show, Lunch with Soupy Sales. The show was originally called 12 O'Clock Comics, and was later known as The Soupy Sales Show. Improvised and slapstick in nature, Lunch with Soupy Sales was a rapid-fire stream of comedy sketches, gags, and puns, almost all of which resulted in Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his trademark. Sales developed pie-throwing into an art form: straight to the face, on top of the head, a pie to both ears from behind, moving into a stationary pie, and countless other variations. He claimed that he and his visitors had been hit by more than 20,000 pies during his career. He recounted a time when a young fan mistakenly threw a frozen pie at his neck and he "dropped like a pile of shoes"

ROBERT E. LEE'S BIRTHDAY

Today would have been the birthday of one of the greatest figures of American History. His name is Robert E. Lee. He was born in 1807. Abraham Lincoln had depended on him to lead the Union Army in the Civil War. Had he done so the war might have been cut in half. Lee, however was loyal to his beloved state of Virginia.
Lee was at all times a gentleman and a scholar and actually became a college professor after the end of the War. Now interestingly enough, Robert E. Lee privately ridiculed the Confederacy in letters in early 1861, denouncing secession as "revolution" and a betrayal of the efforts of the Founders. The commanding general of the Union army, Winfield Scott, told Lincoln he wanted Lee for a top command. Lee accepted a promotion to colonel on March 28. Lee had earlier been asked by one of his lieutenants if he intended to fight for the Confederacy or the Union, to which he replied, "I shall never bear arms against the Union, but it may be necessary for me to carry a musket in the defense of my native state, Virginia, in which case I shall not prove recreant to my duty." Meanwhile, Lee ignored an offer of command from the CSA. After Lincoln's call for troops to put down the rebellion, it was obvious that Virginia would quickly secede and so Lee turned down an April 18 offer to become a major general in the U.S. Army, resigned on April 20, and took up command of the Virginia state forces on April 23. At the outbreak of war, Lee was appointed to command all of Virginia's forces, but upon the formation of the Confederate States Army, he was named one of its first five full generals. Lee did not wear the insignia of a Confederate general, but only the three stars of a Confederate colonel, equivalent to his last U.S. Army rank; he did not intend to wear a generals insignia until the Civil War had been won and he could be promoted, in peacetime, to general in the Confederate Army.
Lee's first field assignment was commanding Confederate forces in western Virginia, where he was defeated at the Battle of Cheat Mountain and was widely blamed for Confederate setbacks. He was then sent to organize the coastal defenses along the Carolina and Georgia seaboard, where he was hampered by the lack of an effective Confederate navy. Once again blamed by the press, he became military adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, former U.S. Secretary of War. While in Richmond , Virginia, Lee was ridiculed as the 'King of Spades' for his excessive digging of trenches around the capitol. These trenches would later play an important role in battles near the end of the war. Today is also Dolly Parton's 64th birthday and believe or not Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers turns seventy one. Well off again to sell cars at my new job. All my training should be this week before I take my final position in the "Special Finance" department. That means financing for people with bad credit. After this recession do many people really have "great" credit? Maybe not.

A LOT OF THINGS HAVE HAPPENED SINCE THE LAST POSTING

Christmas came and went while I busily was doing two jobs-- selling cars at Alhambra Nissan and working at Disneyland throughout the busy holiday season. I must say that the whole Disneyland experience overall was really wonderful. Everybody on the staff were tremendously friendly and helpful and waiting on our guests there was really super fun and exciting. I got to work on New Years Eve and I was simply flabbergasted as to how many happy people were there in attendance. The wait for rides was really ridiculous (Dumbo took two hours) but nobody cared. Everybody was there to greet the new decade in. It just had to better than poor old 2009. The midnight fireworks show was spectacular and mind blowing. I worked at the Candy Palace that night. The amount of candy apples and brownies and gingerbread cookies were staggering. I had a great family re-union with my entire family that was held at my sister's house on December 26th. We all brought Chinese food and made up a giant buffet. In that way, my poor eldest sister didn't have to do all the cooking again. John Nugent continue to try and finish our deadlines for the Vermont Theatre competition. Financially things are very strapped and survival is a daily challenge for me, but with God's amazing help, I just feel that somehow things will be okay. My nephew, Kevin broke his leg last week skating and that sidelined him from work and bowling for at least a week. He has gone back to work on crutches. The weather will be rainy this week and the dear old weatherman predicts eight inches of rain. That sucks! But I know that we need the rain. My new job doesn't require much driving. I know work at Sunrise Ford in North Hollywood about six miles away where I actually will have many great opportunities to sell cars-- this time Ford-- exclusively and of course the great gamete of used cars that an ordinary dealership takes in. I was surprised to find that the oldest son of Soupy Sales (Tony is fifty-eight years old) ) works here as a salesman too. It was nice shaking hands with him and telling him how much I loved his dear father. I happened to mention to him one of Soupy's old "Words of Wisdom" boards on the really old television show. Those words said "Be True To Your Teeth and they won't be false to you!" He smiled and said that those were the very words that summed up his tribute to his dad who had passed away last November. I am still hoping that i can balance two jobs--selling cars and Disneyland. We shall see what we shall see about that. After all, it takes a full hour to drive to Anaheim and only ten or eleven minutes to drive to North Hollywood. Yesterday, I went to a lovely memorial service for my dear friend's friend, Carol who passed away at ninety years old on December 26th. Tim Doran had cared for her over thirty years. He did everything he could for her and showed me what being a true Christian is all about! The ceremony was one of the best. I was finally able to see Betty Price (another of Tim's friends) play the bells. Tim calls her "The Bell Lady" and she certainly is an incredible one. She had actually memorized all of the songs that she played yesterday afternoon including a fifteen minute pre-show, a solo and an exit concert. What an amazing tribute! No one could have had a nicer sendoff. The soloist was amazing! The performance by the choir was fantastic and my Tim's playing of "Over The Rainbow" brought me to tears. It has taught me a valuable lesson. "The honest of heart are sometimes the most difficult to understand" Carol was very honest, one thousand percent and maybe the most difficult thing to grasp in our lives is a stark one hundred percent honesty by any one individual. Many of us can not be that honest and that direct. Today is Martin Luther King's day. It's the 16th anniversary of the great Los Angeles earthquake. And now our thoughts are on dear Hatti. She suffers so much and we need to pray for her dear sweet people who are suffering greatly. I will try to be a little more frequent on here than I have been. Happy 2010 to everyone who may read this. I do appreciate the nice comments that i do receive from my readers out there. Let's hope we can all survive this big promised week long rain storm.

WORKING AT DISNEYLAND'S EMPORIUM

"HEY, MOM-- SAY HELLO TO WALT UP THERE IN HEAVEN FOR US AND THANK HIM FOR

EVERYTHING IN THIS MAGIC PLACE"

These days I have two jobs. I sell cars for Nissan and there's my fun job working part time at the Disneyland Emporium. Every one there is so nice and wonderfully friendly . I've been working mostly at nights and because it's Christmas at the Disneyland resort, it's all very beautiful. The other night I had a bird's eye view of the Candlelight Procession-- which is a gathering of a great many choruses from schools and universities from all over Southern California. Jon Voight was the narrator this year and he did such a wonderful job. At the end of it, Jon looked up to heaven addressing his late mother and asked her to say "Hi to Walt" up in heaven and to thank him personally for all of the great traditions that he started. I must say that I am amazed just how busy this store is. People buy so much stuff that you say out loud "What recession?" One lady bought over nine hundred dollars of Disney memorabilia in CASH.It is simply amazing. The merchandise is all great stuff. Some of the sweatshirts and the children's outfits are really well designed. Of course when I get off at 2:45 in the morning, the park is completely empty and it looks all so surreal. It's quite an experience and a real joy to work here. The Emporium was one of the original 1955 shops open when the park opened on July 17, 1955. Saturday night, December 5th was Walt's birthday and it was a joy to remind my customers that it was indeed a very special day. It would have been Walt's 108th birthday. I am convinced that he is always watching over Disneyland. His loving spirit is all over the park, but especially on Main Street. So as I go home each night, I turn towards his old firehouse apartment and salute and say "Goodnight, Walt, thanks for all of this!"

Thus was a sad day of reflection for me. And that's because thirty-five years ago at about 9:00 pm, I lost my dearest mother, Virginia Ricciardi in an automobile accident. My dear mother never had a chance. My mom was the kindest, the most loving and the most generous soul equal only to my dear father Louis M. Ricciardi. My mother was my very best friend. She truly believed in me-- and that was before I started writing songs. My mom would simply do anything for those she loved and those who loved her. WE kids never had a poor birthday or a poor Christmas-- not even a poor Halloween or the Fourth of July. I can remember so vividly that white flocked Christmas tree in our living room with every kind of present under it that you could ever imagine. My sweet dear mother would work so hard. She made home made pizza that everyone in the neighborhood absolutely went nuts over. She made the best dinners. Her specialties were Spanish rice, lasagna, meat loaf, tuna casserole (with a Bisquick brand crust) and roasts. I still adore roast beef today. But the real treasure that my mother held was her most amazing heart of gold. I loved her so much. She never tried to "change me". She accepted the who and what that I was "warts and all". I just wish she could have known about the songwriter that I have become . She played the piano and loved doing that. My Uncle Mario would come over on Wednesday afternoons and he would sing those wonderful sings like "Granada" " I Will Wait for You" "Old Man River" and "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". There is one haunting melody that my mother played-- especially after my dear father died in 1966. She absolutely missed him so much! I have put lyrics to it at last and now want to put the melody with the lyrics. I am certain my dear mother is in heaven. She was kind and loving to every soul she met. When my mother was your friend, dear readers, you couldn't find a better one in all the world. I am so grateful to her and my dad. I guess I got all the creativity in the family-- the music from my mother and the lyrics from my dad. My dad painted with brush strokes. I paint with lyrics to songs. Thirty five years is a long time, but I remember every sweet nuance of her character. I remember the way she laughed. I remember how she loved to go out and eat and have her little drink of whiskey with water on the side. I remember how she loved hot sauce on just about everything she ate-- even omelets and especially steak! She loved watering and planting in her garden. She loved badmitton and in her younger years adored tennis. She loved playing Canasta with my aunts and she loved us kids like no one else could. She loved her wine and smoked far too much and I lost her at age sixty-one on this date in 1974. Painful? Still! But I know that my dear mother who had a crooked spine and who just walking around the super market was a real challenge sometimes was my champion. I will love and honor her memory FOREVER. I miss you, "Mama Dootz"(my nickmame for her on Ralph Street days) I really truly miss you! Play the piano for God-- Lord knows He needs the comforting sound of those amazing melodies that you used to play for all of us!

YOU AND THE NIGHT AND THE MUSIC

The picture that you see is all that is left of the historic Tin pan Alley buildings in New York City. can you imagine that there used to be fifty-three different publishers in just this one set of buildings? Wow! Today is the 70th anniversary of a great song composed by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz who also gave us that amazing MGM signature song "That's Entertainment" The song was featured in a very forgotten Broadway musical called "Revenge in Music". The musical opened and closed in thirty-eight performances and then being Christmas time , the theatre had nothing else to present and they re-opened the show where it fared better (154 performances) Back in those days, you didn't need a long time to recoup your music. In case you don't remember the lyrics of the great show, here they are.

You and the night and the music

Fill me with flaming desire

Setting my being completely on fire

You and the night and the music

Thrill me but will we be one?

After the night and the music are done

Until the pale light of dawn and in daylight

Hearts will be throbbing guitars

Morning will come without warning

and take away the stars

If we must live for the moment

Love 'til the moment is through

After the night and the music die

Will I still have you?

Until the pale light of dawn and in daylight

Hearts will be throbbing guitars

Morning will come without warning

and take away the stars!

If we must live for the moment

Love 'til the moment is through

After the night and the music die

Will I still have you?

When you get a line like "Hearts will be throbbing guitars" --you know you have a well written lyric line. That lyric was supplied by Dietz's partner Arthur Schwartz.

But Dietz was more than simply a great composer because In 1919, he joined Goldwyn Pictures Corporation as publicity director. In 1924, he became director of advertising and publicity for MGM, a position he held for over 30 years, rising to vice-president. He devised the company symbol, Leo the Lion, and its pseudo-Latin slogan, "Ars Gratia Artis".In 1923, Dietz wrote the lyrics for an Arthur Samuels melody called "Alibi Baby," which was a hit in W.C. Fields’ stage show, Poppy. For the next few years, Dietz collaborated on several Broadway shows, including Dear Sir (1924), with Jerome Kern, and the revue Merry-Go-Round (1927).Many of Dietz's greatest songs were written in collaboration with composer Arthur Schwartz, with whom he first worked on The Little Show in 1929 (songs from that production included "I Guess I'll I Have to Change My Plan”). Other notable songs written by Dietz and Schwartz are "Something to Remember You By" and “The Moment I Saw You” from Three’s a Crowd (1930). “Dancing in the Dark" from The Band Wagon (1931), "Alone Together" from Flying Colors (1932), "You and the Night and the Music" from Revenge With Music (1934), "By Myself," "Triplets," and "I See Your Face Before Me" from Between the Devil (1938). Well today is my first official day at Disneyland working in the Main street Emporium. Well we shall see what this brings. I have always wanted to work for Disneyland, but I never had the opportunity or the necessity to be so motivated. Well, until next time.

A PIECE OF WORK AND A DAY THAT PERKS

Well, today, dear friends is good "Black Friday", the busiest shopping day in all of the world. Retailers depend on this day as a make or break day in their retail sales success or failure. For years, I weathered these awful days behind a cash register. Today, I will watch it from a new perspective-- at a car dealership as a car salesman/ referral specialist. It should be interesting. Today is also the birthday of the dear "abominable showman", himself David Merrick. Now here was a piece of work that simply had no equal in Broadway history. Dear old, now departed old David was known for his love of publicity stunts. One of his most famous promoted the poorly-reviewed 1961 musical Subways Are For Sleeping. Now here was a musical that simply had nothing going for it. It simply didn't pass the standard "who cares" test. Now David knew this musical was in deep financial trouble and so to boost attendance Merrick found seven New Yorkers who had the same names as the city's seven leading theater critics: Howard Taubman, Walter Kerr, John Chapman, John McClain, Richard Watts, Jr., Norman Nadel, and Robert Coleman. Merrick invited the seven namesakes to the musical and secured their permission to use their names and pictures in an advertisement alongside quotes such as "One of the few great musical comedies of the last thirty years" and "A fabulous musical. I love it." Dear David Merrick then prepared a newspaper ad featuring the namesakes' rave reviews under the heading 7 Out of 7 Are Ecstatically Unanimous About Subways Are For Sleeping. Only one newspaper, the New York Herald Tribune, published the ad, and only in one edition; however, the publicity that the ad garnered helped the musical remain open for 205 performances (almost six months). Merrick later revealed that he had conceived the ad several years previously, but had not been able to execute it until Brooks Atkinson retired as the New York Times theater critic in 1960 since he could not find anyone with the same name On the morning of August 25, 1980, Gower Champion died of a rare blood cancer. Merrick kept his death a secret so he could announce it himself at the opening-night curtain call for 42nd Street, which he had produced and Champion had directed. Merrick suffered a stroke in 1983, which confined him to a wheelchair. He established the David Merrick Arts Foundation in 1998 to support the development of American musicals. Merrick was married six times, to Lenore Beck, Jeanne Gibson, Etan Aronson (twice), Karen Prunczik, and Natalie Lloyd. He was married to Lloyd at the time of his death in London; all of his previous marriages had ended in divorce. But these are but two of the grand stories about him. I also would like to recommend a movie playing for the holidays. It's the Jim Carey version of "A Christmas Carol" -- See it in 3D. Carey is absolutely brilliant playing Scrooge and all three ghosts of Christmas, past, present and yet to come. I am now convinced that dear Jim Carey can play just about anything. Of course, I have always loved the Charles Dickens story-- it is an absolute classic. I had a nice dinner with my sister this year-- her turkey dinner was absolutely delicious.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2009

Today is the last Thanksgiving Day of the decade. It's been an interesting ten years. Some has been very happy and some (like in 2001 has been extremely sad) Another decade is upon us. What will it bring? Electric cars are on their way I am told-- won't that be rich when the price of gas will plummet because there is no longer a demand for it! I am grateful and so thankful to have not one job (albeit part time) but two which can be as many hours as I need to fill in the rest. As much as I love Disneyland, I would never have guessed that I would be working there. But there I will be starting this Saturday afternoon at Two O' Clock in the afternoon. Right there on Main Street USA , in the biggest retail space in the park The Emporium. And here's the plus -- catty corner from Walt's old private apartment above the Main Street Fire House. The light in that magic window (which is kept lighted always) is a gentle reminder to all of us as to who exactly this amazingly great but simple man actually was. Intrinsic is a wonderful word and it kind of sums up Walt best-- because without any more than a grammar school's education, the man with the famous mouse was intrinsic about music, screen stories, amusement parks, and best of all the public. He knew what they would embrace and he knew what they would not. As far as Thanksgiving itself, this will be the first that I will be without a beard or a goatee in almost thirteen years-- shaving was required for the Disneyland job-- but hey-- change is good. Thanksgiving origins are interesting to note. The date and location of the first Thanksgiving celebration is a topic of modest contention. The traditional "first Thanksgiving" is the celebration that occurred at the site of Plymouth Plantation, in 1621. The Plymouth celebration occurred early in the history of what would become one of the original thirteen colonies that became the United States. The celebration became an important part of the American myth by the 1800s. This Thanksgiving, modeled after celebrations that were commonplace in contemporary Europe, is generally regarded as America's first. Elementary school teacher Robyn Gioia has argued that the earliest attested "thanksgiving" celebration in what is now the United States was celebrated by the Spanish on September 8, 1565 in what is now Saint Augustine, Florida. Today, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. Thanksgiving dinner is held on this day, usually as a gathering of family members and friends. So Happy Thanksgiving to all. I am so grateful to my friends. Especially dear Tim Doran -- bar none without him, I would not be a songwriter today. My thanks and prayers are with him today. I am grateful too to my writing partner, John Nugent-- what a genius! What an amazing composer! He was gift wrapped by the Lord and given to me as a grand present in September 2007-- Thank you, dearest God!